Last year I was very fortunate to win a Gray-Nicolls cricket bat autographed by NZ Cricket captain Kane Williamson from Players Sports.

I’ve been reasonably crafty and creative recently, so decided I would make a special case for this special bat.

After much planning, sketching, measuring and staring into the void I settled on a design I was happy with and headed to Mitre 10 to get the plywood that would make up the majority of the case.

I took it over to my father-in-law’s workshop and cut it to length, put grooves in the sides for the Perspex top I intended to slide in and, not having a router, I used the saw bench to make the ends plug in, while seamlessly continuing the lid groove.

I was pretty damn chuffed with the result:

We glued three out of four sides to the base and left it to dry.

The next weekend I cut and drilled out some spare pieces of ply that would hold the bat in place.

A few months passed and I was finally able to get out to Spotlight in Hastings to buy some adhesive-backed green felt to go into the case to resemble the green grass of a cricket pitch and protect the bat from knocks and scrapes.

It was like Durasealing the inside of the exercise book from hell, but I managed to get it done, with the worst of only a few ripples hidden by the bat when it was set in place.

Last was the Perspex lid. This would keep the case sealed and the bat dust free.

Once again I went to Classique Plastics in Napier who had the clear tube for my Top Gun diorama, and they cut a piece of thin, clear plastic to fit perfectly!

The result looks pretty professional if I do say so myself!

Now I just need an office, or regal study / leather armchair furnished library to mount it in…